“Well, I’ve said about all I had to say,” replied Senator Mulligan, warmly. “I asked you to marry me, I did, and I tould you, I did, if you had to lose what money you had because I’m an American, thank God, that I’d make it up to you a dozen times over. I said that, I did, and I didn’t desaive you about the senatorship.” The brogue by this time was rampant. “The thing was going a-beggin’, and the Governor, he sends for me, and he says to me, ‘Mike,’ says he, ‘you’ll be nothin’ but a stop-gap, and don’t get any other notion into your red head but that--and ye’ll step down and out the first of January,’ says he; ‘and don’t monkey with the buzz saw,’ says he. And I says, says I, ‘I won’t, Governor, and I’ll have my fling at Washington, and I’ll take down my Panhard red devil, and go a-scorchin’ over the Washington streets, and have the time of my life,’ and bedad, I have. And I had no more thought of falling in love and getting married than I have of trying to get up a diligation to present my name to the next Prisidential convention. But then I met you, Miss Maitland, and I came up here after you, and you’ve bowled me over, senatorship and all, and I’ve tould the truth, and not a lie in the bunch, and I’ve offered to give up your money, and I don’t see that I’ve done anything for you to look at me like Lady Macbeth, and I beg your pardon if I’ve offinded you.” During this speech Constance Maitland’s heart softened toward Mince Pie Mike. He had only claimed a man’s inalienable right, and he had behaved as honourably as in him lay. So she said, with a softening of the voice as well as the heart: “I feel sure that all you say is true and I am sorry if I have wounded you--but what you ask is not to be thought of for a moment.” “Well,” remarked the Senator, resignedly, “it’s a disappointment, it’s a great disappointment, but there are other things in life, Miss Maitland. There’s the pleasure of helping widows and orphans, and I swear to you I have done that as well as I could iver since I was a clerk in good ould Danny Hogan’s corner store, and there’s the pleasure of managing the primaries and handing over the biggest batch of votes for the money of any man in the State----” “Mr. Mulligan!” cried Constance, in horror. “Yes, there’s no denying of it in some States--and there’s automobiling and plenty of other clean, dacent pleasures to make up for love. But I tell you, Miss Maitland, there never can be the time, if I’m still single, that you can’t be Mrs. Michael Patrick Mulligan, and your money may go to the bow-wows for all I care, and I honour and admire you above all the women I iver knew, I do that. Good-bye. Don’t snub the life out of me in Washington if I meet you next winter.” “I shall not, I promise you--good-bye,” said Constance, and walking briskly into the summer-house, while Senator Mulligan turned away, she almost walked into Geoffrey Thorndyke’s arms.